The Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t quite gone away yet and the global economy faces several headwinds going forward into the rest of this year and the next. Some of it is due to the hangover effects of the pandemic and others due to new challenges arising out of those. The main challenges to global economic growth… Continue reading After the Pandemic, the Rate Hike Stranglehold
Just last year, I had written on the occasion of the start of India’s 75th year of independence, about the long, Sisyphean journey our country had taken to reach where we are today. And about the challenges that remain. I had written it also from the point of view of our own personal experiences as… Continue reading A Democracy Fraying @ 75
If anyone could go one better in fiction after the Harry Potter books, it ought to have been JK Rowling herself. Sadly, The Casual Vacancy has to go down as her worst book, and I haven’t checked if she’s written any since. My father bought The Casual Vacancy – that too, a hardback – a… Continue reading Sleazy Potboiler After Potter
Regular readers of my blog probably know well by now that I don’t think the digital medium is suited to brand-building. At least not in its current form. I have written a few pieces on the subject already. And many might be wondering why I would even be remotely interested in writing about digital brands,… Continue reading Let’s Get Digital Brands Growing
In the fall of 2020, we were relieved to see a recovery in the sales of passenger vehicles in India, as people clearly showed a preference for owning their own private transport in the post-lockdown phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies were reporting better sales as the previous couple of years had seen a slowdown,… Continue reading Motown Caught Between Recovery and Slowdown
President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) plan for reviving ties with the Asia-Pacific region is a PR ploy to paper over large cracks in the region in the recent past. Right from the pivot to Asia announced by President Obama’s administration in 2009, which led to the creation of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership (TPP)… Continue reading IFAFF Is What It All Amounts To
On hearing the news of India’s FY22 GDP growth announced a few days ago, you might think – like the Indian government and some sections of the media – that ours is the fastest growing large economy. Never mind that the fourth quarter was the slowest growing in a long time – 4.1% - and… Continue reading Growth Depends on India Going Back to Work
When reading newspapers or books or watching the news, we often come across the word development. It is a term so often used to mean growth, loosely speaking, that when attached to any other word, it takes on new meanings. Urban development, rural development, industrial development, sustainable development, etc. Then, of course, we have the… Continue reading Development and All That We Understand by It
There are many brands that we grow up with and are an intrinsic part of our lives. Some fade away into oblivion, but most stay around and strengthen their relationships with consumers. And even when we outgrow them, there is always another set of consumers to take our place. There’s a curious thing I observed… Continue reading Brands Relaunching After a Long Hiatus.
Since inflation is the most important topic of discussion these days across the world, I began to think about how that affects brands and how brands in turn manage inflation. Is there a connection at all, and if so, what are the different dynamics at work? Effects of cost-push inflation At the outset, all companies… Continue reading Brands and Inflation, What’s the Connection?
Peripatetic Perch 